CD rates going up despite economy

Posted by Nicole

Well, at least the introductory rates are. I’ve been seeing a ton of advertisements in The Star-Ledger trumpeting CDs with 4% interest rates. Right now, CDs I’d opened at 5.5% or so a couple of years ago are only garnering me about 3%-3.5% right now.

In fact, I’ve found one of these banks, Washington Mutual, is at the head of the pack in promoting its higher interest rate. But true to form, there’s a catch: you have to open a free checking account, but with no minimum. ConsumerismCommentary.com explains the details.

Now that sounds all well and good, but right now I don’t have the funds to open a new CD and have no use for another checking account. Does it make sense to close out one of my maturing 3% interest CDs at another bank and re-invest the funds at the higher rates that are out there? Seems like a lot of hassle for another few bucks.

Hopefully, the interest rates will increase across the board, even for us “established” CD owners.